0:00:00.000,0:00:02.000
So I'm here to tell you

0:00:02.000,0:00:04.000
that we have a problem with boys,

0:00:04.000,0:00:06.000
and it's a serious problem with boys.

0:00:06.000,0:00:09.000
Their culture isn't working in schools,

0:00:09.000,0:00:11.000
and I'm going to share with you

0:00:11.000,0:00:14.000
ways that we can think about overcoming that problem.

0:00:14.000,0:00:17.000
First, I want to start by saying, this is a boy,

0:00:17.000,0:00:19.000
and this is a girl,

0:00:19.000,0:00:21.000
and this is probably stereotypically

0:00:21.000,0:00:23.000
what you think of as a boy and a girl.

0:00:23.000,0:00:25.000
If I essentialize gender for you today,

0:00:25.000,0:00:27.000
then you can dismiss what I have to say.

0:00:27.000,0:00:29.000
So I'm not going to do that. I'm not interested in doing that.

0:00:29.000,0:00:32.000
This is a different kind of boy and a different kind of girl.

0:00:33.000,0:00:35.000
So the point here is that not all boys

0:00:35.000,0:00:37.000
exist within these rigid boundaries

0:00:37.000,0:00:40.000
of what we think of as boys and girls,

0:00:40.000,0:00:42.000
and not all girls exist within those rigid boundaries

0:00:42.000,0:00:44.000
of what we think of as girls.

0:00:44.000,0:00:47.000
But, in fact, most boys tend to be a certain way,

0:00:47.000,0:00:49.000
and most girls tend to be a certain way.

0:00:49.000,0:00:52.000
And the point is that, for boys,

0:00:52.000,0:00:55.000
the way that they exist and the culture that they embrace

0:00:55.000,0:00:57.000
isn't working well in schools now.

0:00:57.000,0:00:59.000
How do we know that?

0:00:59.000,0:01:01.000
The Hundred Girls Project

0:01:01.000,0:01:04.000
tells us some really nice statistics.

0:01:04.000,0:01:07.000
For example, for every 100 girls that are suspended from school,

0:01:07.000,0:01:10.000
there are 250 boys that are suspended from school.

0:01:10.000,0:01:13.000
For every 100 girls who are expelled from school,

0:01:13.000,0:01:16.000
there are 335 boys who are expelled from school.

0:01:16.000,0:01:18.000
For every 100 girls in special education,

0:01:18.000,0:01:20.000
there are 217 boys.

0:01:20.000,0:01:22.000
For every 100 girls with a learning disability,

0:01:22.000,0:01:25.000
there are 276 boys.

0:01:25.000,0:01:27.000
For every 100 girls

0:01:27.000,0:01:29.000
with an emotional disturbance diagnosed,

0:01:29.000,0:01:31.000
we have 324 boys.

0:01:31.000,0:01:34.000
And by the way, all of these numbers are significantly higher

0:01:34.000,0:01:36.000
if you happen to be black,

0:01:36.000,0:01:38.000
if you happen to be poor,

0:01:38.000,0:01:41.000
if you happen to exist in an overcrowded school.

0:01:42.000,0:01:44.000
And if you are a boy,

0:01:44.000,0:01:46.000
you're four times as likely

0:01:46.000,0:01:48.000
to be diagnosed with ADHD --

0:01:48.000,0:01:51.000
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

0:01:51.000,0:01:54.000
Now there is another side to this.

0:01:54.000,0:01:57.000
And it is important that we recognize

0:01:57.000,0:01:59.000
that women still need help in school,

0:01:59.000,0:02:01.000
that salaries are still significantly lower,

0:02:01.000,0:02:04.000
even when controlled for job types,

0:02:04.000,0:02:06.000
and that girls have continued to struggle

0:02:06.000,0:02:08.000
in math and science for years.

0:02:08.000,0:02:10.000
That's all true.

0:02:10.000,0:02:12.000
Nothing about that prevents us

0:02:12.000,0:02:14.000
from paying attention to the literacy needs

0:02:14.000,0:02:16.000
of our boys between ages three and 13.

0:02:16.000,0:02:18.000
And so we should.

0:02:18.000,0:02:21.000
In fact, what we ought to do is take a page from their playbook,

0:02:21.000,0:02:23.000
because the initiatives and programs

0:02:23.000,0:02:25.000
that have been set in place

0:02:25.000,0:02:27.000
for women in science and engineering and mathematics

0:02:27.000,0:02:29.000
are fantastic.

0:02:29.000,0:02:31.000
They've done a lot of good

0:02:31.000,0:02:33.000
for girls in these situations,

0:02:33.000,0:02:35.000
and we ought to be thinking about

0:02:35.000,0:02:37.000
how we can make that happen for boys too

0:02:37.000,0:02:39.000
in their younger years.

0:02:39.000,0:02:41.000
Even in their older years,

0:02:41.000,0:02:43.000
what we find is that there's still a problem.

0:02:43.000,0:02:45.000
When we look at the universities,

0:02:45.000,0:02:48.000
60 percent of baccalaureate degrees are going to women now,

0:02:48.000,0:02:50.000
which is a significant shift.

0:02:50.000,0:02:52.000
And in fact, university administrators

0:02:52.000,0:02:54.000
are a little uncomfortable about the idea

0:02:54.000,0:02:56.000
that we may be getting close to 70 percent

0:02:56.000,0:02:58.000
female population in universities.

0:02:58.000,0:03:01.000
This makes university administrators very nervous,

0:03:01.000,0:03:04.000
because girls don't want to go to schools that don't have boys.

0:03:06.000,0:03:09.000
And so we're starting to see the establishment

0:03:09.000,0:03:11.000
of men centers and men studies

0:03:11.000,0:03:13.000
to think about how do we engage men

0:03:13.000,0:03:15.000
in their experiences in the university.

0:03:15.000,0:03:17.000
If you talk to faculty, they may say,

0:03:17.000,0:03:20.000
"Ugh. Yeah, well, they're playing video games,

0:03:20.000,0:03:23.000
and they're gambling online all night long,

0:03:23.000,0:03:25.000
and they're playing World of Warcraft,

0:03:25.000,0:03:27.000
and that's affecting

0:03:27.000,0:03:30.000
their academic achievement."

0:03:30.000,0:03:32.000
Guess what?

0:03:32.000,0:03:34.000
Video games are not the cause.

0:03:34.000,0:03:36.000
Video games are a symptom.

0:03:36.000,0:03:38.000
They were turned off a long time

0:03:38.000,0:03:41.000
before they got here.

0:03:41.000,0:03:43.000
So let's talk about why they got turned off

0:03:43.000,0:03:46.000
when they were between the ages of three and 13.

0:03:46.000,0:03:48.000
There are three reasons that I believe

0:03:48.000,0:03:50.000
that boys are out of sync

0:03:50.000,0:03:52.000
with the culture of schools today.

0:03:52.000,0:03:55.000
The first is zero tolerance.

0:03:55.000,0:03:57.000
A kindergarten teacher I know,

0:03:57.000,0:04:00.000
her son donated all of his toys to her,

0:04:00.000,0:04:03.000
and when he did, she had to go through

0:04:03.000,0:04:06.000
and pull out all the little plastic guns.

0:04:07.000,0:04:09.000
You can't have plastic knives and swords and axes

0:04:09.000,0:04:11.000
and all that kind of thing

0:04:11.000,0:04:13.000
in a kindergarten classroom.

0:04:13.000,0:04:16.000
What is it that we're afraid that this young man is going to do with this gun?

0:04:16.000,0:04:18.000
I mean, really.

0:04:18.000,0:04:21.000
But here he stands as testament

0:04:21.000,0:04:24.000
to the fact that you can't roughhouse on the playground today.

0:04:24.000,0:04:26.000
Now I'm not advocating for bullies.

0:04:26.000,0:04:28.000
I'm not suggesting

0:04:28.000,0:04:31.000
that we need to be allowing guns and knives into school.

0:04:31.000,0:04:33.000
But when we say

0:04:33.000,0:04:35.000
that an Eagle Scout in a high school classroom

0:04:35.000,0:04:37.000
who has a locked parked car in the parking lot

0:04:37.000,0:04:39.000
and a penknife in it

0:04:39.000,0:04:41.000
has to be suspended from school,

0:04:41.000,0:04:44.000
I think we may have gone a little too far with zero tolerance.

0:04:44.000,0:04:47.000
Another way that zero tolerance lives itself out is in the writing of boys.

0:04:47.000,0:04:49.000
In a lot of classrooms today

0:04:49.000,0:04:51.000
you're not allowed to write about anything that's violent.

0:04:51.000,0:04:53.000
You're not allowed to write about anything

0:04:53.000,0:04:56.000
that has to do with video games -- these topics are banned.

0:04:56.000,0:04:58.000
Boy comes home from school, and he says,

0:04:58.000,0:05:00.000
"I hate writing."

0:05:00.000,0:05:02.000
"Why do you hate writing, son? What's wrong with writing?"

0:05:02.000,0:05:05.000
"Now I have to write what she tells me to write."

0:05:05.000,0:05:08.000
"Okay, what is she telling you to write?"

0:05:08.000,0:05:10.000
"Poems. I have to write poems.

0:05:10.000,0:05:12.000
And little moments in my life.

0:05:12.000,0:05:14.000
I don't want to write that stuff."

0:05:14.000,0:05:17.000
"All right. Well, what do you want to write? What do you want to write about?"

0:05:17.000,0:05:20.000
"I want to write about video games. I want to write about leveling-up.

0:05:20.000,0:05:22.000
I want to write about this really interesting world.

0:05:22.000,0:05:25.000
I want to write about a tornado that comes into our house

0:05:25.000,0:05:27.000
and blows all the windows out

0:05:27.000,0:05:29.000
and ruins all the furniture and kills everybody."

0:05:29.000,0:05:31.000
"All right. Okay."

0:05:31.000,0:05:33.000
You tell a teacher that,

0:05:33.000,0:05:36.000
and they'll ask you, in all seriousness,

0:05:36.000,0:05:39.000
"Should we send this child to the psychologist?"

0:05:39.000,0:05:42.000
And the answer is no, he's just a boy.

0:05:42.000,0:05:45.000
He's just a little boy.

0:05:45.000,0:05:47.000
It's not okay to write these kinds of things

0:05:47.000,0:05:49.000
in classrooms today.

0:05:49.000,0:05:51.000
So that's the first reason:

0:05:51.000,0:05:53.000
zero tolerance policies and the way they're lived out.

0:05:53.000,0:05:56.000
The next reason that boys' cultures are out of sync with school cultures:

0:05:56.000,0:05:58.000
there are fewer male teachers.

0:05:58.000,0:06:01.000
Anybody who's over 15 doesn't know what this means,

0:06:01.000,0:06:03.000
because in the last 10 years,

0:06:03.000,0:06:05.000
the number of elementary school classroom teachers

0:06:05.000,0:06:07.000
has been cut in half.

0:06:07.000,0:06:09.000
We went from 14 percent

0:06:09.000,0:06:11.000
to seven percent.

0:06:11.000,0:06:13.000
That means that 93 percent of the teachers

0:06:13.000,0:06:15.000
that our young men get in elementary classrooms

0:06:15.000,0:06:17.000
are women.

0:06:17.000,0:06:19.000
Now what's the problem with this?

0:06:19.000,0:06:21.000
Women are great. Yep, absolutely.

0:06:21.000,0:06:24.000
But male role models for boys

0:06:24.000,0:06:26.000
that say it's all right to be smart --

0:06:26.000,0:06:28.000
they've got dads, they've got pastors,

0:06:28.000,0:06:30.000
they've got Cub Scout leaders,

0:06:30.000,0:06:33.000
but ultimately, six hours a day, five days a week

0:06:33.000,0:06:35.000
they're spending in a classroom,

0:06:35.000,0:06:37.000
and most of those classrooms

0:06:37.000,0:06:39.000
are not places where men exist.

0:06:39.000,0:06:42.000
And so they say, I guess this really isn't a place for boys.

0:06:42.000,0:06:44.000
This is a place for girls.

0:06:44.000,0:06:46.000
And I'm not very good at this,

0:06:46.000,0:06:48.000
so I guess I'd better

0:06:48.000,0:06:51.000
go play video games or get into sports, or something like that,

0:06:51.000,0:06:53.000
because I obviously don't belong here.

0:06:53.000,0:06:55.000
Men don't belong here, that's pretty obvious.

0:06:55.000,0:06:57.000
So that may be a very direct way

0:06:57.000,0:06:59.000
that we see it happen.

0:06:59.000,0:07:01.000
But less directly,

0:07:01.000,0:07:04.000
the lack of male presence in the culture --

0:07:04.000,0:07:06.000
you've got a teachers' lounge,

0:07:06.000,0:07:08.000
and they're having a conversation

0:07:08.000,0:07:11.000
about Joey and Johnny who beat each other up on the playground.

0:07:11.000,0:07:13.000
"What are we going to do with these boys?"

0:07:13.000,0:07:16.000
The answer to that question changes depending on who's sitting around that table.

0:07:16.000,0:07:18.000
Are there men around that table?

0:07:18.000,0:07:21.000
Are there moms who've raised boys around that table?

0:07:21.000,0:07:23.000
You'll see, the conversation changes

0:07:23.000,0:07:25.000
depending upon who's sitting around the table.

0:07:25.000,0:07:28.000
Third reason that boys are out of sync with school today:

0:07:28.000,0:07:31.000
kindergarten is the old second grade, folks.

0:07:31.000,0:07:34.000
We have a serious compression of the curriculum happening out there.

0:07:35.000,0:07:37.000
When you're three, you better be able to write your name legibly,

0:07:37.000,0:07:40.000
or else we'll consider it a developmental delay.

0:07:40.000,0:07:42.000
By the time you're in first grade,

0:07:42.000,0:07:45.000
you should be able to read paragraphs of text

0:07:45.000,0:07:47.000
with maybe a picture, maybe not,

0:07:47.000,0:07:49.000
in a book of maybe 25 to 30 pages.

0:07:49.000,0:07:51.000
If you don't, we're probably going to be putting you

0:07:51.000,0:07:53.000
into a Title 1 special reading program.

0:07:53.000,0:07:55.000
And if you ask Title 1 teachers, they'll tell you

0:07:55.000,0:07:58.000
they've got about four or five boys for every girl that's in their program,

0:07:58.000,0:08:00.000
in the elementary grades.

0:08:00.000,0:08:03.000
The reason that this is a problem

0:08:03.000,0:08:06.000
is because the message that boys are getting

0:08:06.000,0:08:08.000
is "you need to do

0:08:08.000,0:08:11.000
what the teacher asks you to do all the time."

0:08:11.000,0:08:14.000
The teacher's salary depends

0:08:14.000,0:08:16.000
on "No Child Left Behind" and "Race to the Top"

0:08:16.000,0:08:18.000
and accountability and testing

0:08:18.000,0:08:20.000
and all of this.

0:08:20.000,0:08:22.000
So she has to figure out a way

0:08:22.000,0:08:25.000
to get all these boys through this curriculum --

0:08:25.000,0:08:27.000
and girls.

0:08:27.000,0:08:29.000
This compressed curriculum is bad

0:08:29.000,0:08:32.000
for all active kids.

0:08:32.000,0:08:34.000
And what happens is,

0:08:34.000,0:08:37.000
she says, "Please, sit down,

0:08:37.000,0:08:40.000
be quiet, do what you're told, follow the rules,

0:08:40.000,0:08:42.000
manage your time, focus,

0:08:42.000,0:08:44.000
be a girl."

0:08:44.000,0:08:46.000
That's what she tells them.

0:08:46.000,0:08:49.000
Indirectly, that's what she tells them.

0:08:49.000,0:08:51.000
And so this is a very serious problem. Where is it coming from?

0:08:51.000,0:08:53.000
It's coming from us.

0:08:53.000,0:08:56.000
(Laughter)

0:08:56.000,0:08:59.000
We want our babies to read when they are six months old.

0:08:59.000,0:09:01.000
Have you seen the ads?

0:09:01.000,0:09:03.000
We want to live in Lake Wobegon

0:09:03.000,0:09:06.000
where every child is above average,

0:09:06.000,0:09:09.000
but what this does to our children is really not healthy.

0:09:09.000,0:09:11.000
It's not developmentally appropriate,

0:09:11.000,0:09:13.000
and it's particularly bad for boys.

0:09:13.000,0:09:15.000
So what do we do?

0:09:15.000,0:09:17.000
We need to meet them where they are.

0:09:17.000,0:09:20.000
We need to put ourselves into boy culture.

0:09:20.000,0:09:23.000
We need to change the mindset

0:09:23.000,0:09:26.000
of acceptance in boys in elementary schools.

0:09:27.000,0:09:30.000
More specifically, we can do some very specific things.

0:09:30.000,0:09:32.000
We can design better games.

0:09:32.000,0:09:34.000
Most of the educational games that are out there today

0:09:34.000,0:09:36.000
are really flashcards.

0:09:36.000,0:09:38.000
They're glorified drill and practice.

0:09:38.000,0:09:41.000
They don't have the depth, the rich narrative

0:09:41.000,0:09:43.000
that really engaging video games have,

0:09:43.000,0:09:45.000
that the boys are really interested in.

0:09:45.000,0:09:47.000
So we need to design better games.

0:09:47.000,0:09:49.000
We need to talk to teachers and parents

0:09:49.000,0:09:51.000
and school board members and politicians.

0:09:51.000,0:09:54.000
We need to make sure that people see that we need more men in the classroom.

0:09:54.000,0:09:56.000
We need to look carefully at our zero tolerance policies.

0:09:56.000,0:09:58.000
Do they make sense?

0:09:58.000,0:10:00.000
We need to think about

0:10:00.000,0:10:03.000
how to uncompress this curriculum if we can,

0:10:03.000,0:10:05.000
trying to bring boys back into a space

0:10:05.000,0:10:07.000
that is comfortable for them.

0:10:07.000,0:10:09.000
All of those conversations need to be happening.

0:10:09.000,0:10:11.000
There are some great examples out there

0:10:11.000,0:10:13.000
of schools --

0:10:13.000,0:10:15.000
the New York Times just talked about a school recently.

0:10:15.000,0:10:18.000
A game designer from the New School

0:10:18.000,0:10:21.000
put together a wonderful video gaming school.

0:10:21.000,0:10:24.000
But it only treats a few kids,

0:10:24.000,0:10:26.000
and so this isn't very scalable.

0:10:26.000,0:10:28.000
We have to change the culture and the feelings

0:10:28.000,0:10:31.000
that politicians and school board members and parents have

0:10:31.000,0:10:33.000
about the way we accept and what we accept

0:10:33.000,0:10:35.000
in our schools today.

0:10:36.000,0:10:38.000
We need to find more money for game design.

0:10:38.000,0:10:40.000
Because good games, really good games, cost money,

0:10:40.000,0:10:42.000
and World of Warcraft has quite a budget.

0:10:42.000,0:10:44.000
Most of the educational games do not.

0:10:44.000,0:10:46.000
Where we started:

0:10:46.000,0:10:49.000
my colleagues -- Mike Petner, Shawn Vashaw, myself --

0:10:49.000,0:10:51.000
we started by trying to look at the teachers' attitudes

0:10:51.000,0:10:53.000
and find out how do they really feel about gaming,

0:10:53.000,0:10:55.000
what do they say about it.

0:10:55.000,0:10:57.000
And we discovered

0:10:57.000,0:10:59.000
that they talk about the kids in their school,

0:10:59.000,0:11:01.000
who talk about gaming,

0:11:01.000,0:11:03.000
in pretty demeaning ways.

0:11:03.000,0:11:06.000
They say, "Oh, yeah. They're always talking about that stuff.

0:11:06.000,0:11:08.000
They're talking about their little action figures

0:11:08.000,0:11:11.000
and their little achievements or merit badges,

0:11:11.000,0:11:13.000
or whatever it is that they get.

0:11:13.000,0:11:15.000
And they're always talking about this stuff."

0:11:15.000,0:11:17.000
And they say these things as if it's okay.

0:11:17.000,0:11:19.000
But if it were your culture,

0:11:19.000,0:11:21.000
think of how that might feel.

0:11:21.000,0:11:23.000
It's very uncomfortable to be on the receiving end

0:11:23.000,0:11:25.000
of that kind of language.

0:11:25.000,0:11:27.000
They're nervous about anything

0:11:27.000,0:11:29.000
that has anything to do with violence

0:11:29.000,0:11:31.000
because of the zero tolerance policies.

0:11:31.000,0:11:34.000
They are sure that parents and administrators will never accept anything.

0:11:34.000,0:11:37.000
So we really need to think about looking at teacher attitudes

0:11:37.000,0:11:40.000
and finding ways to change the attitudes

0:11:40.000,0:11:42.000
so that teachers are much more open

0:11:42.000,0:11:45.000
and accepting of boy cultures in their classrooms.

0:11:45.000,0:11:47.000
Because, ultimately, if we don't,

0:11:47.000,0:11:50.000
then we're going to have boys who leave elementary school saying,

0:11:50.000,0:11:52.000
"Well I guess that was just a place for girls.

0:11:52.000,0:11:54.000
It wasn't for me.

0:11:54.000,0:11:57.000
So I've got to do gaming, or I've got to do sports."

0:11:57.000,0:12:00.000
If we change these things, if we pay attention to these things,

0:12:00.000,0:12:02.000
and we re-engage boys in their learning,

0:12:02.000,0:12:05.000
they will leave the elementary schools saying, "I'm smart."

0:12:05.000,0:12:07.000
Thank you.

0:12:07.000,0:12:09.000
(Applause)